The way I see the individual mandate

[AJTheMan]

2. I hope the Affordable Care Act helps me

I don't know if it will or not. I'm uninsured and my mom recently lost her job along with her health insurance. So we'll still be considered "rich" enough because it all goes off of last year's tax returns, which is when my mom was working. My dad has coverage through SSI Disability. I really don't know if the affordable care act will help me or not. I am uninsured and I'm a college student. (I'll be a freshman this august) I don't have any money to buy health insurance, neither does my mom. My dad gets it at a low rate. But since they base everything off of tax returns, I mean my family made $65,000 last year. This year we won't get close to that number. So I don't know if I qualify for the new medicaid laws or not. Not to mention, the Governor of my state has vowed not to implement the medicaid provisions in the law. So there's always that uncertainty.

The reason I'm not really enthused about this whole thing is that I was always under the assumption that Democrats wanted single-payer. I always assumed that someday a Democrat would make it single payer, which is much simpler. But instead our president decided to take a play from the G.O.P playbook and go for the individual mandates, which Republicans offered as an alternative to hillarycare in the 1990's. All in all, I am suspicious of how this law will even help me. I know that when my mom did have a job and health insurance, it cost $600 a month to cover my dad and I. We struggled to afford that last year and we certainly won't be able to now.